Coronavirus FAQs

On Thursday 16th April 2020, the Minister for Education in Northern Ireland announced that CCEA would undertake the process with Schools in Northern Ireland to provide final grades for A Level pupils based on classwork, homework, coursework, existing exam results and mock exams. CCEA will provide guidance to teachers and will also manage the appeals procedure.

The Department for the Economy have announced that the majority of vocational qualifications used for progression will be awarded by the end of August, in line with published results dates, so that learners can progress to their chosen pathway.

Following the announcement that the Irish Leaving Certificate will not take place in the summer, we are continuing to monitor the situation and hope to update offer holders when further details are available.

If you have already been successful in applying to study at Queen’s, we encourage you to review all your options and consider which offer is best for you. If you want to progress to Queen’s then follow the instructions on your UCAS Track.

We are doing everything we can to limit the impact COVID-19 may have on current applications to study at Queen’s in 2020-21.

Our admissions teams are working hard to process applications and provide decisions as soon as possible. However, there may be a delay in decisions due to the present situation and admissions teams working remotely.

The International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) has confirmed that May 2020 examinations for the IB Diploma Programme will not be held in any country. IB students will be awarded grades by the IBO for each of their registered subjects on the basis of coursework marks and predicted grades.

It is expected that the IBO will publish the IB results on 5 July 2020. Queen’s University Belfast will accept the grades awarded in the IB Diploma this year as normal. We anticipate that we will be able to make decisions on receipt of these results – please note that it can take us a number of days to process decisions.

The University has set up an online facility for the payment of deposits. This has been used by many applicants who are unable to visit a bank because of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. You can access the link to make the payment by logging into your account on the postgraduate application portal.

Supporting documents are not required when you first apply to the University. If you are successful with your application and offered a place, you will need to provide transcripts of your previous studies by a particular deadline – usually in July/August.

If you are not able to provide these by the specified date due to coronavirus, please contact the Admissions Team at intl.stud@qub.ac.uk for further advice.

In response to the announcement from Ofqual on Friday 3 April regarding the way in which A-levels are being awarded, we wish to clarify that Queen’s will use the calculated results as provided by your exam board to determine the level of scholarship awarded - in accordance with the terms and conditions.